The announcement today that former Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Christopher Cox will testify May 5 in front of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is welcome news.

Accountable America first called for Cox to testify or be subpoenaed by the FCIC last September. Cox failed completely to protect investors during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. He owns a chunk of the blame even though there were larger systematic problems.

The truth is that Christopher Cox was ill suited for the post of SEC Chair from the start—like so many other Bush appointees. Cox was ideologically opposed to the type of regulation and oversight the SEC is charged with conducting.

As a member of Congress he raised more than $1,297,9661 from Wall Street, including banks and financial, insurance firms. Did anybody think Cox forgot who was buttering his bread? Or maybe George W. Bush was expecting that he didn’t forget?

Cox’s tenure at the SEC was marked by one trait: no protection for the small investor. Among other things,

The Cox SEC failed to recognize Bernard Madoff’s massive securities fraud despite repeated warnings.

• Cox failed to enforce accounting standards. The SEC had authority over the financial statements over all public companies and can set its own accounting standards if needed.
• Cox failed to supervise the rating agencies. The Credit Rating Agency Reform Act of 2006 gives the SEC the right to suspend or revoke the license of any rating agency. The SEC was their only regulator.
• Cox declined to protect the SEC’s authority by appealing a court ruling regarding hedge funds—sending a clear signal that the SEC wasn’t going to be very active during his tenure.
• Cox didn’t move quickly to appropriately curb short sellers early in the crisis.
  Cox did nothing about Credit Default Swaps—only making remarks after it was clear they posed a massive threat.
• Cox was reassuring the public about Bear Stearns only days before its dramatic collapse yet the agency had failed to adequately supervise Bear and limit risk, according to an Inspector General’s report. At the time, it was reported that Cox failed to attend meetings and phone calls regarding the failing firm.
• The Government Accountability Office (GAO) repeated that Cox’s SEC slowed, hindered and hobbled investigations and enforcement, noting that, Cox’s policies, “contributed to an adversarial relationship between enforcement and the Commission.”
• Cox cut transparency inside the SEC—barring enforcement personnel at the SEC from more than 40 percent of the meetings considering sanctions or legal actions.
• Cox undercut morale deeply at the SEC. At one point in his tenure the Bush Treasury Department proposed abolishing the SEC—Cox failed to quickly protest the idea leaving many to think he supported it.

Cox has a lot to account for in front of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. It will be a hearing worth watching.